With the recent passing of Amalia Rosen, widow of Romania’s longtime chief rabbi, a new generation of leaders is coming forward in this country.
Nicolae Cajal was introduced as the new president of the Federation of the Romanian Jewish Communities at a meeting last month of the Eastern Europe Area Committee of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
Only a day after Cajal assumed the new position, Rosen died, marking what many viewed as the end of an era.
Rosen, who had been in declining health for almost a year, was the only woman to have served as a member of the Executive Committee of the Federation of the Romanian Jewish Communities, a position she held for years.
Her major contributions were in the field of developing social assistance programs and in the revival of a genuine Jewish cultural life in Romania.
She died only months after her husband, Rabbi Moses Rosen, passed away. As chief rabbi of Romania from 1948 until his death, he wielded an extraordinary amount of influence within the country as a religious leader, while also serving as a frequent ambassador to the United States of behalf of Romania.
Rabbi Rosen enabled nearly the entire postwar Jewish community of Romania, about 400,000, to emigrate to Israel. This exodus was unique in communist Eastern Europe.
As Rabbi Rosen stated both in his speeches and in his memories, his wife was his “closet collaborator and constant adviser.”
While her death marked the end of a remarkable period for Romanian Jewry, the installation of Cajal as president of Romania’s Jewish community was seen as a new beginning.
Eugene Ribakoff, chairman of the federation’s executive committee, described Cajal as “the right man at the right time and the right place.”
In his inaugural remarks to federation members, Cajal spoke of the general situation in Romania, which he characterized as dominated by a high rate of inflation and a slow improvement in the economy.
As a result, he said, prices for basic food products have become almost “prohibitive” for most Romanians.
Cajal gave a short description of the JDC’s assistance program for the Romanian Jewish community, which he said helps some 2,500 families.
The JDC program, he said, provides some 1,200 meals-on-wheels daily and about 2,800 food parcels distributed several times a year. The agency also provides funds to support four nursing homes.
Cajal said that current medical and social assistance programs will be continued, improved and, if possible, diversified.
Noting that 65 percent of the 15,000 registered Jews in Romania are 60 years of age, he described Romanian Jewry as “an old community, but not a senile one.”
He called the JDC aid program an investment in the daily survival of a generation that witnessed the atrocities of World War II.
Regarding current anti-Semitism in Romania, Cajal said he believed it was not a widespread phenomenon, although he acknowledged that some individuals were anti-Semitic.
Citing a recent attempt by some here to found a fascist party, he noted that the effort was rejected as non-constitutional by the country’s courts.
Cajal that he was determined to answer manifestations of anti-Semitism by promoting a policy of publicizing Jewish contributions to the development of Romania and to the progress of mankind as a whole.
He said this goal will be achieved by publishing articles and books, sponsoring lectures and opening a museum in which the works of Romanian Jewish artists will be displayed.
On the delicate issue of the restitution of Jewish properties confiscated during World War II, he suggested that the federation act with diplomacy and patience.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
